Wednesday, May 23, 2012

The Hitman’s Guide to Housecleaning
by Hallgrimur Helgason
AmazonCrossingReviewed by Amy Henry

At least the man knows how to clean and how to straighten up a room. I’ll give him that much credit, despite the fact his
tidying up is only a way to kill time, waiting on a woman who may end up a
victim. Vacuum expertise aside, however,
it’s difficult to find much else of interest in this arrogant and chatty
assassin nicknamed “Toxic,” the main character of the novel The Hitman's Guide to Housecleaning, who continually reminds us just how skilled
he is at murder. Immediately, we
start to wonder how this will play out: is
he going to turn into a valiant hero, or will he maintain his tragic
vision and become the rarely seen, fully fledged anti-hero?

“…I’m really proud of my hitman
work. I always try to do a good
job. ‘Victim first’ is my motto.”

Determined
to come across as a fully-accredited badass, the protagonist narrates his every thought
and action as he flees the U.S. after a hit goes wrong.Seeing the FBI on his tail, he quickly
changes his plans, kills another stranger, and steals his identity.He awakes on a plane bound for Reykjavik,
Iceland.The odds are good his escape
plan will work, except that his new identity is that of a well-known fundamental
Christian leader with a schedule of appearances awaiting him.Deciding to play along with the ruse, he
manages to record some disturbing radio sermons and manipulate his somewhat
confused hosts, all while looking for a way out of Iceland.

Author Hallgrimur Helgason often channels Quentin Tarantino with action
similar to the film director’s style: fast-paced violence, pop culture
references, saturated with sarcasm.This
is completely intentional, as Tarantino gets mentioned (as do Beyonce and
Creed) several times in the storyline. The frenetic pace makes it difficult to
absorb just how despicable the character is, and I found myself grasping for some
quality to make him likable, some redeeming quality that would explain his
often disturbing actions.

“Usually I don’t want to know
anything about my victims. It’s like
back in the war. I kill strangers. I don’t feel for them. They’re just another head to swamp my bullet into…Usually
they have refused to pay their tithe, failed to deliver for Dikan, or they show
up with the same tie as he at the Mafia Oscars.”

See
that? He manages to radiate disinterest and boredom, while at the same time
making a really bad joke.Unfortunately,
that becomes the theme of this novel.When hiding in an attic looking himself up on Google, he jokes, “I’m
Anne Frank online.” Upon remembering a group of beautiful women, he shares his
wishes for “mass rape.” He is endlessly amused at the low murder rates in the
country, and spends his time remembering the better days in the States where he
celebrated each kill with glee.

It
becomes clear at the midpoint of the novel that there is a source of his
internal conflict and external bravado: he served in the Balkan war, and with
his father and brother, saw and participated in terrible atrocities.Helgason inserts the details slowly, and it’s
possible to feel a tiny bit of pity for the protagonist.But it doesn’t last, as experiences of war
don’t seem sufficient to mitigate his present behavior.If anything, the arc of the Balkan storyline
appears so far into the novel that it feels too late to make up for his actions.
Of course, mindlessly killing a small dog doesn’t exactly make him
appealing. And yet his self-awareness
grows, likely because he’s out of his element and who he had been can’t
exist anymore. In one brief moment, he admits, “everybody must have figured out
I am the monster who lives under the bridge.”

On the
surface, the premise of The Hitman's Guide to Housecleaning is very clever, but the delivery is so unsavory that it is
neither tragic nor comic.The sarcasm
and humor feels forced, almost like a joke told by a comedian who is trying far
too hard to get a laugh.I get the
feeling that Helgason is trying to reinforce just what a “monster” Toxic is due
to his past experiences, yet there’s no evidence that he’s left the past
behind.The other characters he
encounters seem flat, as if they are only tools to further reveal Toxic’s
depravity.

Perhaps
this can be attributed to the Stieg Larsson effect.Scandinavian crime novels boomed with his
“Girl” trilogy, but the dark mystery novels were nothing new.Other authors, such as Jo Nesbo, Henning
Mankell, Karin Alvtegen and Arnaldur Indridason have created suspenseful and
imaginative crime stories in the same setting for years before the region
became comparatively “hot” in the literary world. While those authors don’t often present
characters quite as colorful as Toxic, they usually succeed in developing
deeper characters with a more compelling warmth.

Amy Henry is a reviewer at The Black Sheep Dances, as well as a copper fold-forming artist, university student and highly-skilled octopus wrangler who is addicted to the BBC. Follow her on Twitter: @blacksheepdances

The Quivering Pen

The Quivering Pen's motto can be summed up in two words: Book Evangelism. The blog is written and curated by David Abrams, author of the Iraq War comedy Fobbit (Grove/Atlantic, 2012), from his home office in Butte, Montana. It is fueled by early-morning cups of coffee, the occasional bowl of Cheez-Its, and a lifelong love of good books.